I Need Your Help
by SkyGem
Summary: Whenever he has free time, Sawada Tsunayoshi likes to wander around town dressed as a homeless person and make new friends. No pairings. One-shot. Outsider POV.


Summary: Whenever he has free time, Sawada Tsunayoshi likes to wander around town dressed as a homeless person and make new friends.

* * *

"Hi!"

At the sound of the cheerful voice, Aroldo Esposito turned his attention away from the dog resting with her head in his lap and to the youth who had come up and sat beside him.

He was young, maybe twenty at most, with soft brown hair and even softer brown eyes. He looked distinctly Asian, and was wearing a ratty pair of sweats and an old t-shirt that was a few sizes too big for him so that it almost slid off one of his shoulders. He was clean though, and looked reasonably well-fed, so he was probably new to his situation.

Looking down at the bag he had clutched to his chest, the young man opened it up and, without further ado, pulled out a sandwich in plastic wrap.

Opening it up, he took one half of the sandwich and handed it to Aroldo, saying, "Sorry, I don't have anything for your dog."

And Aroldo just stared at the boy, completely shocked at this unexpected turn of events.

He must have stared at the boy for maybe a bit too long, because eventually he started to look a bit uncertain.

Upon noticing his new companion's discomfort, Aroldo hurried to take the offered sandwich, saying a grateful, "Thank you very much!"

Once he had taken the sandwich, the youth's expression went back to the cheerful smile he had had on his face before.

"My name is Aroldo," he said, introducing himself after a bite of what turned out to be a rather delicious egg salad sandwich.

"I'm Tsunayoshi Sawada, but most people just call me Tsuna," he replied, his attention mainly on Aroldo's German Shepherd as he held his hand out for her to sniff. When she licked at his fingers in greeting upon deciding that he was harmless, the look of childish joy on Tsuna's face made Aroldo want to smile as well.

"That's a Japanese name," said Aroldo, his earlier suspicion having been confirmed, and Tsuna nodded.

"I lived in Japan for most of my life. Moved out here about..." and here he paused to count the years on his fingers, looking surprisingly childish, "...five years ago."

"How old are you anyways?" asked Aroldo, looking longingly towards the boy's backpack. By now, he'd finished the sandwich and was wishing he had more.

"Twenty-three," replied Tsuna, opening his backpack as he spoke.

Aroldo had just enough time to be surprised that Tsuna was apparently not as young as he looked before he was surprised for a completely different reason.

Tsuna had just pulled out yet another sandwich, and this time, he didn't take half before offering it to Aroldo.

The thirty-three-year-old took it without hesitation this time, and took one bite (it was ham and cheese this time), quickly swallowing before asking, "How many sandwiches do you have in there?"

"Uh...ten, I think," replied Tsuna, and Aroldo's eyebrows shot up.

"Did you rob a store or something?"

"No, I had my chefs make it. One of the perks of being a mafia boss," replied Tsuna with a toothy smile.

"A...a what?" demanded Aroldo, too shocked to process what he'd been told.

"A mafia boss," replied Tsuna, that same smile still on his face. "That's why I moved here from Japan. To take over the mafia family my great-great-great-grandfather founded!"

There was a beat of silence after he said this as the two males just stared at each other before Aroldo burst into a fit of laughter.

"Good one, kid," he said, wiping the tears from his eyes, and Tsuna only smiled wider.

"Well, you know my story. What's yours?"

Aroldo shook his head in exasperation; he'd only known this kid for what, fifteen minutes? And he was already starting to grow fond of his cheerful attitude and his childish ways.

After the laughter had left him though, Aroldo looked down at his lap, absently scratching his dog's head.

"This wasn't supposed to happen, you know," he said quietly. "I was a lawyer for crying out loud! I had a beautiful girlfriend I was going to marry, and a house, and a job in a successful law firm!"

"Then what happened?" asked Tsuna, his voice quiet and somber, as Aroldo had yet to hear it be before this moment.

"A scandal," he replied. "There was some kind of huge scandal, and next thing I know, I'm jobless, and no respectable firm is willing to hire someone who used to work for _that_ firm. I probably would have eventually found a job, but I was depressed. I hadn't ever expected for such a thing to happen to me, and so I turned to alcohol for comfort."

Tsuna made a sympathetic sound, obviously guessing where this was going. But Aroldo kept talking because, now that he had started, he couldn't bring himself to stop. With every word that tumbled out, it seemed as if a burden was slowly being lifted from his chest.

"I drank and drank and drank, and before long, I had no home, no savings, no girlfriend. The only one that stayed with me through it all was this beauty," he finished, smiling fondly down at his dog, who got up to lick his cheek in reply.

"How long have you been on the streets?" asked Tsuna after a moment of quiet.

"About three months," was the reply. "I'm just barely scraping by as it is. It terrifies me to think about what I'll have to do if I'm still on the streets when winter comes.

Tsuna didn't say anything in reply for quite a while, and Aroldo assumed he was probably thinking about the same problem.

"I can get you a job," replied Tsuna after a quiet moment, looking down at his lap as he did so.

Aroldo snorted and asked sarcastically, "Working for your mafia family you mean?"

And Tsuna, instead of being offended, just shrugged.

"It doesn't have to be for the mafia. I know people in the business, and I can easily find you a job at a respectable firm."

Aroldo couldn't muster up the energy to feel angry at Tsuna for mocking him.

"Look," he said, "I know you're-"

Before he could continue though, there was an almost deafening shout of, "JUUDAIME!"

Both men looked up, and Aroldo stared with wide eyes as a man with dishevelled silver hair walked up to them, looking agitated.

"Oh God," Tsuna whispered under his breath, not even blinking at the expensive suit the new stranger was wearing.

"Thank God you're alright, Juudaime," said the man, pulling Tsuna to his feet and into a crushing hug.

"I can take care of myself, Hayato!" protested Tsuna the moment his friend had let him go, crossing his arms and sporting a pout on his face.

"I never said you couldn't," replied Hayato in a placating voice, "But what if someone caught you by surprise? You know how devastated everyone would be if something happened to you! I'm not asking you to stop helping people, but please, at least take someone with you when you pull this kind of stunt."

Tsuna kept pouting for a moment more before letting out a sigh and saying, "Fine. But how did you find me, anyways?"

"Gabriel helped me," replied Hayato, and Tsuna looked at the young man that had come to stand by Hayato with a look of utter betrayal on his face.

"Gabriel," whined Tsuna, "I thought I could trust you! How could you lead him here?"

"I'm sorry, Decimo," replied Gabriel, ducking his head in shame. "But Hayato was just so worried and I...ah..."

He trailed off, and Tsuna rolled his eyes, letting out an exasperated huff.

Aroldo, meanwhile, was staring at this newcomer, Gabriel, with wide eyes.

Wearing a finely tailored suit, a neat haircut, and a clean-shaven face, he looked nearly unrecognizable, but Aroldo would recognize that face anywhere.

As if sensing the gaze trained upon himself, Gabriel looked over at Aroldo, and a shy smile stole across his face.

"It's good to see you again, Aroldo," the boy said. Before he had gone missing a month ago, Gabriel had been somewhat of a friend of Aroldo's, who had felt somewhat protective of the sensitive younger man.

"What happened to you?" asked Aroldo.

And the younger man just shrugged, smiling sheepishly and saying, "Same thing that's happening to you. I met Vongola Decimo and he took me under his wing. Now I work for him."

"V-Vongola?" choked Aroldo, looking over at his new friend with a look of shock upon his face. Being a lawyer, Aroldo knew more about the Vongola than most civilians did, and the fact that he had been talking to their Don sent a shiver of fear down his spine.

"I told you I was in the mafia," said Tsuna with a toothy smile and a chuckle at Aroldo's expression. "It's not my fault you didn't believe me."

And Aroldo, seeing that Tsuna was still the friendly young man he'd spent the past while befriending, relaxed a bit.

"So, what do you think?" asked Tsuna, holding a hand out to the still sitting Aroldo. "Will you accept my help? Your dog is welcome too."

Aroldo hesitated a moment, but Tsuna hadn't led him wrong yet, so finally, he accepted the offered hand, a genuine smile making its way onto his face.

"I'd be glad to accept."

* * *

Now, fast forward two months, and Aroldo was knocking on his boss's office door.

In the time since he'd met Tsunayoshi Sawada, Aroldo's life had changed in a million different ways.

Upon arriving at the Vongola HQ, he'd been shown to a luxurious suite and had been told that he was welcome to stay there until he found his own place...or for good, if he so wished.

And just like that, he'd gone from not having a penny to his name to wearing Armani suits and sleeping in a bed even finer than the one he'd had before he lost his home.

He'd spent the first month getting lessons from various tutors about proper body language, proper ways to speak, and basically anything that had to do with navigating the waters of high society.

And when the time came to find a job for himself, Aroldo was certain he could have gotten a job any place he wanted.

When Tsuna finally asked him about it though, Aroldo held up a hand, stopping the brunet's rather long list of law firms he had connections with.

"If it's all okay with you," he'd told the brunet, "I would be honoured to work for the Vongola."

And the smile that had lit up Tsuna's face then could have powered all of Italy with how happy he seemed.

Now, after having worked for the Vongola for almost a month, Aroldo didn't regret his decision in the slightest. His boss was amazing and just as kind-hearted as he had been when Aroldo had first met him, and he went to bed every night thanking any God that was listening for the existence of Sawada Tsunayoshi.

As Aroldo was contemplating this, the Decimo's voice called for him to come in from inside his office, and the man snapped back to the present.

Stepping into the rather comfortable room, Aroldo did a double-take upon seeing that Tsuna was once again wearing the clothes he had been when they'd met.

"Aroldo," he said in a completely serious voice, "I need your help with something."

* * *

SkyGem: The end! Did you like it? I liked it a lot! It was fun to write! Anyways, please leave a review and let me know what you thought! And to those of you who didn't get it, when Tsuna said he needed Aroldo's help at the end, basically he was taking Hayato's advice to heart and asking someone to come with him the next time he went out to make new friends.


End file.
